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Why Arsenal are completely right to snub Man City and keep Alexis for another year….

Alexis Sanchez and his poker hand. by Neil

So much has been written about Sanchez over the last 6 months and his alleged wish to team up with Pep at Man City.

Many people have written on this site how terrible it would be if he were allowed to leave on a free next season as opposed to selling him to City now. Well lets play out both scenarios…

1. He goes to City now. Unquestionably he is a formidable goal scoring attribute to any side and his goals would surely help to elevate City’s position next term. Interestingly I haven’t read of a City plan B if they don’t get Sanchez which leads me onto my second point.

2. Wenger and the board stand firm and refuse to sell him. I don’t believe he would sit the season out on the bench and miss the opportunity to play alongside Lacazette and Ozil not to mention any other acquisitions we might make.

I feel confident we will not suffer the debilitating February that we always do in 2018, not least because we won’t have two matches against an elite European club in the UCL last sixteen. Pyschologically that has had an enormous bearing on our season year on year. I believe as a consequence we will be mentally stronger and our form much more stable.

And so here is a potential dilemma for Sanchez:
He is forced to stay, we have a solid run in and, dare I say it, find ourselves challenging for the Premier League and the Europa. It really isn’t inconceivable – given the acquisitions we have made and are looking to make. City by contrast fail to push on, don’t win anything and scrape a top 4 place again. Will the then 30 year old Sanchez be desperate to leave Arsenal or re-evaluate and decide to remain with us?

I think Wenger and the board believe by holding onto Sanchez, and with our acquisitions and non participation of the UCL, we are genuine contenders, as do I. I also think if we outperform City and they don’t finish in the top four Pep will resign and view non qualification of UCL as a failure which would leave Sanchez nowhere to go.

To summarise Wenger is right to force Sanchez to stay: There are zero guarantees City will kick on without him whereas by keeping him we have every possibility to finish in a significantly better position than Pep’s team when May 2018 comes around.

Too much optimism, doing good in EPL should be our goal. If we concentrate on EL, a Thursday/Saturday match day dilemma will drain us. I bet we will have a gr8 run in EPL, not sure on Europe.
City wont wait for ever for Alexis, they are buying young and talented kids, they will buy a plan B for sure if they dont Alexis. Next year irrespective of results at City, Alexis will be 29 and giving him a long term well paid contract might be out of question, there will be new stars in the horizon for sure. That does not mean Alexis cant go elsewhere on free and get 400k, free transfer players get lot more in salary for the choice of club they make. But for sure, he wont win C’League with just any other teal like City. BM wont want him after James deal this year either

Lets see what happens after next signing.. if it is Lemar then potentially he is a replacement for Sanchez or might inspire Sanchez to want to play with Lemar and Lacazette llus he already has a great playing bond with Ozil
Man utd have sold Ronaldo in the past and Tottenham sold Bale and Liverpool sold Suarez… life goes kn and I just think sooner we get next transfer done we will know whats going to happen with Sanchez as we definitely dont want to sell him last week of August … unless Mbappe or Lewandowski is joining as a result !

Off topic… very interesting to see James go on loan to Bayern ! Doubt Sanchez will go there now !

Unless his price of £80 is met then we should not sell.If he’s however sold for that money I believe we’d be getting the better deal because even with Sanchez they are still not guaranteed the title.According to our representative at GOAL by mutual consent he’s told his agent he wants to leave.Also that £400,000 a week story has always been a lie.If he stays he’s only trying to honour his contract and leave for free next summer.It’s very likely he will leave for free if he stays for this season.I hope he at least signs a one year contract so that we can sell him for a reasonable amount instead of losing him for free.

I find it difficult to believe the £400k a week wages, it could be true though and he knows that if he is out of contract then teams will be more willing to pay the high fee due to no transfer fee to be paid.

“If he stays he’s only trying to honour his contract and leave for free next summer.”
I would say he would honour his contract and leave himself the best options for next summer.

Look at how Chavski imploded after winning the EPL, bad luck can happen.

“I hope he at least signs a one year contract so that we can sell him for a reasonable amount instead of losing him for free.”
I have thought along the same lines, not so we don’t lose him for free though but to keep him for his peak years, let him go for free afterwards. We can make his money back on winning stuff, we stand a better chance with him.

If we can win the EPL then Alexis might be willing to not ask for so much and if anything will have lost the upper hand in contract negotiations he currently holds. So yeah, a 12 month extension has been something I would be happy to see.

Wanted to ask you Kev, is Bellerin French? I assume so because French players get the Wenger love right? Cheeky git is pretending to be Spanish! XD

As a city fan, id love to have him at our place. However the plan B is Roberts, who i rate very highly. He just needs to be given a shot. And without Sanchez that could be the chance he gets.
So i wouldnt be too down if we wouldnt get him.

Plus City could always make a plan A work. Im sure if we wanted him that much nothing would stand in our way finacially.

We had so much uncertainty surrounding Wenger last season, which had a negative impact, and it’ll be the same if we keep our best player, without him renewing our contract.

People seem to be forgetting that clubs can actually sign Sanchez up on January 1st. Imagine how much it could destabilise the second half of our season if comes out City/Chelsea have signed him up. So Sanchez would still be playing for us, but we’d know he’s already joined one of our rivals. If any club signs him during January, I promise you that that information will be leaked, especially if Arsenal are doing well.

Sanchez can sign only for a foreign club on January 1st, not for a PL club. Player from a PL club can sign for other PL club only when his contract expires. If you ever played CM / FM you would know it

I would say it could be worse than what you said, Wenger contract has happened in the past but we never had that type of implode, the difference was Alexis.
Alexis contract, not Wengers.

If anything, in the past the team has picked up when Wenger contract has been an issue, players became scared of losing the easy ride as some would say.

This year was different, it was more pronounced, the implode was worse than ever. Alexis attitude is an issue which we all have read about, we are happy to overlook this though if he performs. I am as well. I do wonder though if it is right to overlook that?

Football is a team game.

Keeping him will be a gamble and some gambles are worth taking, like all gambles, we will only know once the hand has been played. Fans will believe this way or that way and that will create some interesting debates 🙂

I think it could be worth it but I know time will tell if I was right 🙂

City didnt lookbright all season under Pep. Not sure why but you can point to two completely different performances that we had which affected our final position. Our dip in form was blatantly clear and so potentially rectifiable. City didnt have a dip..they were just very mediocre..

I honestly believe that if we get to Jan and we are leading the pack then Alexis will sign and we will get him to sign for less than the reported £400k a week, he wouldn’t get that at City and when you look at City top earners, we are offering more than City.

City have Aguero on around £240k a week. City are seen as a team more likely to win the EPL though and players want trophies. A competitive wage in a competitive team. Yaya Toure was the other top earner at City on the same wage.

Zlatan was on I think around £350k a week plus bonuses (later worked out to be close to an extra £3million for the season)

I honestly do not think it is the wages that is holding Alexis back and I do find it hard to believe the wages that the media has been saying, it would make him the best payed EPL star EVER. Even at £300k a week, it would make him the leagues best payed player. Zlatan not being renewed and Rooney taking a 50% paycut to join Everton would remove the top earner competition thing and putting Alexis at the top if he signs for £300k a week, heck even £280k a week makes him the top earner in the league.

I am quite excited for the start made by wenger. I remember for 2years on end..everybody cried for lacazette..and we got our man. Composed finisher..ruthless streak..most deff one of the best strikers in the current market.

Sanchez?..boy oh boy. Look the guy is class..has hunger..determination to win. If he wants to leave set a 80-100mill price tag. Yes…his a level below messi and ronaldo and most definitely better than lukaku. Then again..the prospect of alexis,ozil,lazaette,lemar..holy cow..dare i say one of the fearsome attacking foursome in europe. To let him stay will be a problem and will cause uncertainty.

we need a large squad to compete on all fronts, would love to keep perez but his on his way.

lets see how we shape in preseason and community shield to see how things will mould for the new season to come.

Another City fan im afraid.
Not sure I would want a player who did not want to stay at my club but totally understand why Arsenal would be making life very difficult for Sanchez. I’m indifferent about signing him because we have so much attacking talent. If he signs great if not we can certainly work with what we have and maybe pick him up on a free next season. Im more interested in the defensive side of things but a fit Kompany with a couple of new full-backs will see us very hard to beat. I don’t think we got out of third gear last year but if it clicks I can see us tearing teams apart. Good luck with your season either way
cheers

Please give Sanchez 400k he’s asking for.. He will justify him.. He’s worth it considering the circumstance we are in technically.. It’s not about if he will justify it on the field of play but we need him for the fear factor it will have on other teams and for our confidence.. We don’t want to pile the pressure on lacazette or lemar in their debut season.. We can sell him next season the 400k a week becomes unbearable but we need to get back into champions league.. Liverpool and Co strengthening.. It’s not going to be easier next season, we have to be ready